Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / John Carapiet: GE Free New Zealand spokesperson on the rule changes regarding genetically modified food

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John Carapiet: GE Free New Zealand spokesperson on the rule changes regarding genetically modified food · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There are concerns this morning about regulations of genetically modified foods.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Minister for Food Safety Andrew Hoggart has quietly greenlit new
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: rules set by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand. The
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: changes have been genetically modified food without foreign DNA would
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: no longer need to be labeled as genetically modified in supermarkets.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: John krapiit is GE free New Zealand with us this morning, John,
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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Hello. What's wrong with that?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the main problem is that the deal in New
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  Speaker 2: Zealand has always been that whether you can support GMOs
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  Speaker 2: or don't support GMOs, there'd be a right to choose,
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  Speaker 2: so there'll be disclosure in the supermarkets. And we haven't
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  Speaker 2: actually had many GMOs in New Zealand. There's some imported,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: many imported as processed oils and other ingredients, but nothing
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  Speaker 2: in New Zealand has grown. That's g of GE. That's
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  Speaker 2: about to change potentially with the Gas Technology Bill going
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: through Parliament separately. But what has happened yesterday or a
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  Speaker 2: couple of days ago, is that after many years of
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  Speaker 2: consulting with the public saying do you want do you
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  Speaker 2: really want to know? Is a GMO? The answer was
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  Speaker 2: yes from the public submissions to the food authorities, but
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  Speaker 2: they completely ignored the public. They said that labeling was
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  Speaker 2: out of scope and there isn't going to be any
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  Speaker 2: and that decision is based as you said, it's based
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  Speaker 2: on if there's no foreign DNA, it's been ging edited,
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  Speaker 2: but it's not going to be labeled. And that's a furfe,
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  Speaker 2: a scientific fur fee, obviously in the interests of industry,
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  Speaker 2: because the real reason why there's not been many GMOs
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  Speaker 2: in New zealm And it's not because they've been a ban,
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  Speaker 2: because there hasn't been a ban, but really the market
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  Speaker 2: has said they don't want it, both locally and globally.
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  Speaker 2: So to jack it up, to jack up the market,
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  Speaker 2: to have like essentially set up market failure by you're
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  Speaker 2: not going to have a choice. That's really wrong and
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  Speaker 2: that's why it's really bad that the ministers signed their
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  Speaker 2: off with the Australian ministers to say you're not going
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  Speaker 2: to have a choice.
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  Speaker 1: John Food Standards Australia, New Zealand. They say, actually, this
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  Speaker 1: is going to provide more clarity for consumers, for your
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  Speaker 1: customers that the definition change they're talking about is focusing
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  Speaker 1: on the change that's been made rather than the process
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  Speaker 1: used to make the change.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, and as I say, that's for scientific and
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  Speaker 2: consumer furthy, because consumers care about how things are made.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, if you think about like a free range
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  Speaker 2: often there's not a big difference in the product, but
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  Speaker 2: the way the animal was run, the way it was raised,
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  Speaker 2: is important for consumers. And so whether it's a safety
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  Speaker 2: issue or not, it is a safety issue, by the way,
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  Speaker 2: and I'll explain that shortly, but whether it's a safety
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  Speaker 2: issue or not, the risk should not be transferred onto
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  Speaker 2: the consumer because they don't know it's GMO. And to
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  Speaker 2: take away that labeling is really, as I say, it
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  Speaker 2: completely overturns the social contract because the risk has always
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: been left with the public. But the labeling and the
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  Speaker 2: chaceability and the testing of these products was like the
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  Speaker 2: counter to that bill takes away chaseability. There is no
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  Speaker 2: labeling and there's no pretesting, and that's where the Achilles
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  Speaker 2: heel of the food safety comes in, right, because if
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  Speaker 2: you don't check what you've done, it doesn't have to
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  Speaker 2: have foreign DNA to have unexpected changes through gene editing,
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  Speaker 2: and n's why the charge should be there.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I appreciate you coming on the show. That bell
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  Speaker 1: that you're talking about obviously hasn't been through yet, but
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  Speaker 1: we were talking about changes that were announced yesterday by
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Food Safety by the Andrew Hoggart, who's the Food Minister.
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  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 3:48
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